There are only three budget airlines in Thailand: Nok Air, Air Asia and, of course, One-Two-Go. This week, One-Two-Go announced it will not go anywhere for 56 days, effective from this Tuesday. This news doesn’t come as too much of a shock. As Andrew spotted, One-Two-Go chief Udom Tatiprosongchai “told the Bangkok Post that he was seriously pondering whether to ground the airline temporarily on mounting cost pressures and a poor business outlook”.

This is bad news for anyone who travels within Thailand and it goes beyond just One-Two-Go. Nok Air has certainly been feeling the pressure, as have Air Asia and even “smooth as silk” Thai Airways.

The common complaint among all airlines is the rising cost of oil. Each of the airlines has been cutting back routes in an attempt to save money. I know that tourism in Thailand has taken a bit of a knock in recent weeks, with visitor numbers not as high as was anticipated.

For an airline to simply cease operations for two months is rather extreme. Coincidentally, in today’s Sunday Times there is an article about families of the victims of last year’s September 16 air crash, which saw 90 people killed when a One-Two-Go aircraft crash landed at Phuket International Airport.

Lawyers representing the families of the British and American victims are seeking £125 million in compensation, citing lax safety practices as responsible for the crash.

One-Two-Go has found it hard to weather the storm after the air crash last year and there is also a website, www.investigateudom.com, calling for a full-scale investigation into the airline and its CEO, Udom Tatiprosongchai.

There are a lot of damning accusations being made against One-Two-Go and this cessation of flights may be an indication that the airline is in serious trouble.

Out of nowhere, a spokesman claiming to represent 11 separatist group from the Deep South has declared an end to the violence.

What. The. F***.

Any groups who do not comply with this newfound peace will be dealt with accordingly, said the spokesman.

“We want to see peace and stability in the region. All forms of attacks have come to an end,” he said.

These are strong words, but who the hell are these people claiming there is a ceasefire, which supposedly began on July 14?

The way I see it, violence has not ended. There have been attacks in the past few days. Gen Chetta Thachajaro is taking the credit for this “breakthrough”, but the whole scenario strikes me as rather odd. There is no word as to exactly why there is a ceasefire.

Surely a group of militants who have beheaded, burned and butchered innocents for years would not simply call it day and not have a strong reason for doing so. This makes them look weak.

More to the point, can one unknown group really speak for everyone in the Deep South?

Bangkok Post, Nation

Everyone’s favourite minister, Chalerm Yoobamrung, was due to arrive in Phuket last night to inspect land plots on Koh Racha that he is accused of abusing his position in the Land Department to help his buddies acquire. In one of the weakest displays to come from a government seemingly founded on weakness, Chalerm not only decided not to land at Phuket International Airport (PIA), but he cancelled his entire trip “to avoid violent clashes”. What nonsense.

Here is a minister who is on the verge of being toppled; he had a chance to really defend himself and he didn’t even have the courage to set foot in the province. There were about 1,000 PAD protesters waiting for him at PIA last night. There were no indications that they were going to lynch the minister. The protesters were animated and were there with banners and headbands, but they were only further infuriated by Chalerm’s no-show.

Today, PAD vowed to do what they know best: erect a stage. I went to Saphan Hin after work to see what they were up to, but found no evidence of any action.

So how should we treat the no-show? Is it effectively an admission of guilt? You would have thought that a minister in such a precarious position would be doing all he could to defend himself.

Chalerm was met at Krabi Airport last night by a smaller group of protesters. Today, he had the audacity to claim that the protesters in Krabi were paid to be there by people who have lost in land deals in the Andaman region. Evidence of this? None provided.

Chalerm said he was afraid that protesters would clash with the police. Again, this is nonsense. There is nothing to suggest that the protesters in Krabi or Phuket would have clashed with anyone. Why would they? When was the last time there were large-scale riots in Phuket about anything? When the Chinese workers’ unions took to the streets?

Yet still Chalerm did not address the issues at hand, instead calling on the governors of Phuket, Krabi and Phang Nga to fly to Bangkok to discuss the matter.

There is no-one on this earth who can save Chalerm Yoobamrung.

Those of you who have been in Thailand for a while will remember the intensive war on drugs that went on in 2003 under the Thaksin regime. At that time, so-called blacklists of “influential people” were drawn up and used to help the police target individuals suspected of dealing drugs.

It was never made clear how these lists of “influential people” were compiled, but extra-judicial killings were rife. Police were given shoot-to-kill orders and those who found themselves on these blacklists were in serious trouble.

Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but the war on drugs is back – and so are the blacklists. In February, Interior Minister Chalerm said, “For drug dealers, if they do not want to die, they had better quit staying on the road. Drugs suppression in my time as interior minister will follow the approach of Thaksin. If that will lead to 3,000-4,000 deaths of those who break the law, then so be it. That has to be done.”

Also in February, PM Samak said, “I want people to understand that in order to fulfil the anti-drug objectives, extra-judicial killings do occur, but police officers responsible for those acts will have to face legal consequences.”

As far as the general public is concerned, we have been led to believe that war on drugs will not be as out of control as it was in 2003. The current war on drugs began April 2 and there have been minimal rumblings as a result.

So why the new blacklists? Phuket’s blacklist of “influential people” has been drawn up and passed onto the governor for final approval. This time, however, those on the list are said to be involved in one or more of 18 criminal activities, including involvement in drugs, gambling and, in Phuket’s case, the infamous taxi “mafia”.

Confusing the issue is that to be blacklisted, an individual must have a network of people working for them or they must be connected to someone in power, such as a government officer.

Phuket’s blacklist is part of a nationwide campaign, but it has yet to be revealed how any of these lists will be used or even who are on the lists. Out in the provinces, away from Bangkok, people felt the full force of the 2003 war on drugs. You will, of course, have heard stories of the atrocities that took place. A repeat of such actions would not sit well after the intense criticism drawn from human-rights groups in the past.

Are we on the brink of something with these blacklists?

The sickening case of 54 Burmese migrant workers suffocating to death in the back of a truck has caught the attention of the world’s media. Almost every major media outlet has recognized the tragedy.

The truck was transporting 121 Burmese workers on their way from Ranong to Phuket. There are several groups who should be held accountable for such a waste of human life.

The driver, Suchon Boonplong, 38, by his own admission, failed to acknowledge phone calls to his cellphone from one of his employer’s and from the workers actually in the truck, as well as the migrants’ repeated banging on the walls. After stopping the truck and discovering a number of dead bodies, he fled the scene, only to give himself up on Tuesday.

Suchon must be held accountable.

The truck belongs to Damrong Phussadee of Rungruengsup Limited Partnership, who is now in police custody. Suchon claimed that it was Damrong who gave the order and arranged the collection of the migrants, although Damrong has denied all knowledge of the workers being transported.

Damrong must be held accountable.

Suchon collected the workers from Choke Charoen fishing pier, which is owned by Jirawat Sophapanworagul, who has also been arrested. His wife was charged with human trafficking in 1996. A man and a woman, who may or may not have been Jirawat and his wife, met Suchon at the pier.

Those two must be held accountable.

But let’s not forget where these workers, including an eight-year-old girl, now deceased, were going. They were travelling to Phuket, where many of them were to work on construction projects. The increasing demand for low-wage workers and the flawed system in place to control the influx of those workers is what caused the deaths of those 54.

There are illegal Burmese labourers all over Phuket. They come, work about three months and then are deported. The cycle continues because developers need construction workers. Of the 1.5 million Burmese workers in Thailand, one-third have work permits. The workers in this case paid something like $160 to be transported into the country, to receive a wage of about $2 a day. (guardian.co.uk).

The problem is that the construction industry is heavily reliant on these workers and yet they still have to be smuggled into the country 100-plus at a time in sealed containers about one-quarter the size of my bedroom.

The Burmese need jobs and Thailand appears to need the Burmese to do these jobs. It’s difficult to envision a solution to this. Big businesses (both foreign and Thai) rely on those workers. Money talks in this country. Suchon was allegedly paid 80,000 baht to transport the Burmese workers. That’s a huge amount of money. There are people in high-up places who do not want trafficking to stop.

With the international spotlight on this case, there will be a number of arrests made in the coming weeks. Some people will take the fall for this, but it will not be an end to the problem; much less, it will be a media circus to turn away the eyes of the global media.

Think about it. If there are no Burmese in Thailand, then a lot of people will lose a lot of money. Look at all the Burmese touts in Patong. They’re controlled by the police. Sure, there is a high-profile roundup of illegal immigrants going on right now in Phuket, but it started on the same day as the 54 were discovered.

So who should really be held accountable?